My students always tease me that I can't write a sermon without them. I suppose that is partially true—I know my sermons are certainly better when I include them.
So when I was at winter camp with them two weeks ago, I asked them what they thought about different parts of this passage—what I should write about or speak about, and their views about different things. I often see the Bible differently after talking about it with other people, and I love that. I think that in so many areas of our lives, we need to be able to look at things through other people's eyes.
And so, we talked about war and whether it's ever right or ever justified under any circumstances. We talked about why God might choose to punish an entire people. And we talked about Jesus.
And then we played a game, because that's how youth ministry is—it's holistic. We can talk about the deep stuff and the fun stuff, and somehow, it all goes together. At the moment, the girls are obsessed with Cards Against Humanity. Don't look at me like that—it's the family edition, which means there's a lot of middle school boy humor, but that aside, it's clean-ish.
Let me explain how the game works. Each person takes a turn choosing a card with a prompt, then everyone else selects a card from their hand that best responds to that prompt. You don’t get to create your own answers; in fact, you’re usually forced to choose the best of a lot of bad options—whatever you think the person with the prompt card will like best. Sometimes we are so confident that our answer is the funniest or most fitting that we declare, “There is a right answer.” Sometimes, we know the other person so well that we can confidently predict the right answer even before seeing the cards that everyone else played.
This ties in with my sermon prep, because as I studied Joshua 5 and 6 and asked the girls for their thoughts, it struck me that despite all of my questions, when looking for the theme of this passage—there is a right answer. In fact, there's a very clear theme. Many of us have grown up hearing this Bible story. It's often harder to find the message in a story that's so familial, but it jumped out at me.
I believe that as we look more deeply at Joshua 5 and 6, we’ll find—as is often the case in the game—that there is a right answer. But, like the game I just described, we need to start with the prompt.
What If God Was King?
We're living in an era in which we distrust people with power. I think the Israelites must have felt something similar. They had been with Moses for the last forty years. I’m sure they liked him—some of the time—but under his leadership, they remained stuck in the desert. Now they have a new leader, Joshua. He's not as well-tested as Moses. He doesn’t share Moses’ credentials—being a prince of Egypt, hearing God speak through a bush, having the Ten Commandments handed to him directly. If anything, they might view Joshua as more of a peer.
Then there was the promise that God made to Abraham—to give this land to his descendants. But they'd been stuck in the desert for the last forty years. The reality is that they needed a miracle. They didn't need another Moses or Joshua. They needed God himself to come down and intervene in their lives and do what he had promised.
Now things are starting to happen that make us think a miracle is finally—finally!—close. But then, at the beginning of chapter five, God tells Joshua to circumcise the Israelites. Talk about a bad card to put down! We have a previous example of a mass circumcision in Genesis 34. In that account, the people were weakened and quickly killed. But when Joshua had finished circumcising everyone, God said, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”
I don't think I ever paid attention to that line before, but the idea is that until God fulfills his promise to his people to bring them into the promised land, they're a joke to the Egyptians and anyone watching them—their God is a joke to all these other people. By saying he had rolled away the reproach of Egypt, God is effectively saying, “Joke's over.” But how is it over? They haven't done anything yet—God hasn't done anything yet. Sure, they were obedient to the covenant sign of circumcision. But now, when they’re preparing to invade a land, they’ve weakened all the fighting men. Okay. Cool, God. What?
Next, they celebrate Passover. Again, not a card I would have played. But then I realized that this is only the third time that we know for a fact that Passover had been celebrated. It was also exactly the right month and the right day of the month that the festival was supposed to take place. How on earth did that align? It must have been a very memorable Passover, since the day after they celebrated, God stopped sending their daily rations of manna and quail. And at this point, you have to admire their obedience and their commitment, they've stepped it up and are living out their covenant. But the story we grew up hearing as children hasn't even begun.
Then we see Joshua near Jericho. Maybe he’s scouting it out, trying to figure out what they're supposed to do—brainstorming strategies for taking this walled city. And he sees a man with a sword. I love Joshua's response here. After all, God told him to be strong and courageous. He walks right up to the man and he asks, “Whose side are you on? Ours or our enemies?”
And the man says, “Neither, I'm here as the commander of YAHWEH's armies.” Immediately, Joshua falls to the ground and worships.
This is not a mere angel. Angels always say, “Don't worship me—worship God only.” But this man accepted Joshua's worship. And then, Joshua asks, “What message does my lord have for his servant?” Most of us probably expect him to say, “Be strong and courageous, and conquer the land I am giving into your hands.” Instead, he says, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.”
So often, we go to God wanting him to tell us how to win, how to fight his battles, how to take control of our lives. We ask him for a message that will inspire or transform us—making us stronger, braver, better. And yet, what God asks of us is to be present, to be reverent, to be where he is, and to worship him.
Jesus remembered that when he was tempted in the wilderness by Satan and responded, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”
Earlier I asked, What if God was king? How would our world look different? How would our priorities change? Would we fight the same battles? Would we pause more often to stop and listen to what he might be trying to say?
These questions are all worth considering—because God is king. Whether we remember it or believe it or live like we know it’s true, God is king.
The significance of God saying he is not on the side of Israel or Israel’s enemies is that neither of them are king—because God is king. God is king over any leader Israel could ever choose. God is king over any enemy Israel would ever face. God is king over the American president and the Canadian prime minister and the king of England. God is king over Russia and Ukraine. God is king over modern-day Israel and over Gaza. God is king over Jews and Muslims, atheists and Christians.
God is king over all created things in heaven and on earth and under the earth. All rule and authority and power and dominion are his.
God is king.
When Joshua fell to his face, he recognized the man as God and God as king. But he also had to come to terms with the statement that God was going to fight God’s battle—not Joshua’s.
I think this is something that Christians frequently misunderstand. We are not the center of the story. Our country is not the center of the story. Our best, most just, most courageous, most generous, or most selfless actions are not the center of the story. And we cannot take our best good thing and put God’s stamp of approval on it.
We like to see ourselves as God’s advisors. Our prayers can sometimes move God to act, but if God listens to our advice, it is only because he is gracious—which, of course, he is.
Ultimately, God is king. And God will find God’s battles.
And the battle of Jericho was God's battle. It makes sense. Have you ever heard of a battle fought by sending religious leaders and soldiers to march in a parade around the city? Every day for six days, no less? And then, on the seventh day, to march around the city seven times, play their instruments, and give a shout, at which time YAHWEH’s armies—not theirs—brought the walls of the city down?
To the people who had cried out from slavery for a miracle and received a dramatic rescue—a man named Moses to stand against Pharoah, a sea divided so they could walk through on dry land, God’s visible presence in a cloud by day and fire by night, manna and quail to sustain them, and water to drink through forty years in the desert—and now, an angel army to fight God’s battle and keep God’s promise to give them this land.
God had always been their king. And the kingship of God was never contingent upon their faith or obedience, but their faith and obedience allowed God’s miracles to be more clearly seen. It also allowed them to more clearly see God. Because when you see God, everything changes.
Our country—our world—so often forgets that God is king. We look for a political leader, our Moses or Joshua, to save us. But while we should absolutely pray for our leaders and do our best to encourage the right kind of leadership, their best solutions aren’t good enough. And at worst, they are inept or corrupt. But that shouldn’t lead us to despair. As Christians, our most important task is to remember that God is king and point the world to the only one who can save us. We need God himself.
I don’t know what challenge you are facing right now. I have friends who have lost their homes, who have been diagnosed with impossible health conditions, or who have lost someone close to them. Others struggle with overwhelming anxiety or depression. Many of us look around and find it hard to hope. We long for a miracle—we need a God-sized answer. I want to pray for you and watch with you for that miracle. And I am confident that we will see it even more clearly when we remember that God is king.
What if God was king? In the Old Testament, the people were reminded that God is king over all the other gods. Our modern equivalent is remembering that God is king over all our political and religious leaders. There’s no comparison between who God is and what he can do. God will fight God’s battles.
Because God is king.
Watch the sermon video on YouTube complete with Cards Against Humanity props.
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